Proposed methods for eradicating honey bees from an area

摘要

The varroa surveillance programme currently established in the South Island aims to provide early detection of varroa to increase the likelihood of successful eradication, should an attempt be made. The extent that varroa has spread when it is firstdetected will play a major part in determining whether eradication is feasible. To be able to eradicate varroa from an area it is necessary to kill all honey bees in that area. Managed colonies are easy to kill because the whereabouts of most of them are known. However, killing feral colonies is a more difficult process because the location of most is not known. To help MAF prepare for an eradication attempt HortResearch was asked to develop methods to poison managed and feral colonies. Killing managedcolonies is a lot simpler and quicker than destroying feral colonies. Pestigas-P" was found to be the most suitable method of killing bees when sprayed under the lid of each hive, preferably when the bees are not foraging. The colonies died within 24 hours and the low residue levels enabled the equipment to be reused within one month. Residues from Pestigas-P" were not detected in the wax, honey or propolis.